by Ash Masters
*
Sat on a table in the main room where the three had passed through, Izumi eyed her friend Eiko, not knowing what to think. A significant part of her of her felt betrayed that her best friend hadn’t told her that she was a Reaper of Justice yet, the small part of her understood. What made Izumi feel uncomfortable was that she didn’t think she knew the person sitting opposite her. A great number of things about Eiko being a Reaper angered her.
Eiko was a short girl – as tall as Izumi and eighteen like the trio. Her hair was on the lighter side of black and extremely short. She sat smiling in her armour where the number “Thirty-Four” was present on her left breastplate.
‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.’ Eiko’s lips stretched once more into an endearing smile. ‘I know that it must hurt because we’re best friends and we tell each other everything. But... You have to understand, by being a Reaper I swore an oath of secrecy.’ Eiko placed her hands over the table in an attempt to hold Izumi’s hands but Izumi continued to keep them underneath and out of her reach.
‘I get it.’ Izumi replied but wouldn’t meet her best friend’s eyes.‘I didn’t know...’
‘Don’t try to restrain the emotions that you feel in your heart, Izumi.’ The voice in her head spoke in an alluring voice. ‘Let those feelings go.’
Izumi shook her head frantically. NO! I can’t! I won’t! Leave me alone! Stop messing with my head!
‘Izumi?’ Eiko nearly rested her entire torso on the table so that she could look up at Izumi’s lowered head.
‘Sorry.’ She shook her head. ‘You were saying?
Eiko sat back on her seat. ‘I don’t fight Izumi; I’m only a medic. I help those who get hurt during the Nightmare’s attacks. Sometimes I’m called to tackle greater circumstances. Though... Sometimes I wish I didn’t do it.’ Her expression twisted.
‘What kind of circumstances?’
‘Sometimes, I’m called out behind the scenes to heal stuff like cancers, immobility and so on. It’s something that gives me joy but it gives the illusion that our hospitals are doing good work like having many cancer patients going into remission. Although it feels good to help it just makes me wish that I could help everyone who’s sick on my own terms. But instead I have to keep my ability a secret and I’m not exactly sure what the secrecy is even there for.’
‘So why did you join the Reapers?’
‘I thought that being a Reaper would allow me to move freely around Japan to help the sick.’
Izumi’s hand was in Junichi’s own and was grasping it tightly. Jealousy was tearing away at her heart, fuelling the darkness that had made itself known to her when the chaos started. Here I am training to be a nurse – her too only to find out that it was a charade. Not only can Eiko help people but she can cure them too! Meanwhile I was the unsuspecting best friend...
‘Are you mad at me Izumi?’ Eiko asked.
Izumi quickly shook her head, still not looking her friend in the eye. I’m scared. She confided to the voice in her head.
‘What are you scared about?’
I can feel it – I can feel you. And I don’t think I can control you.
‘Then let me go.’
No... What you are, it’s wrong. Perverse. Just what are you and how can have dug so far into my mind so quickly?
‘I am the power that you have kept in your heart ever since you were a child.’
A child?
‘Yes... Why do you think you wanted to become a nurse? To help people? No... You became a nurse because you’re selfish. You know you’re a bad person but you don’t want to allow yourself to feel your true emotions. So you lie and cover it up with good deeds so you can trick people into thinking that you’re a good girl.’
‘No...’ Izumi whispered out loud.
‘You’re the person that needs to be punished, not Eiko. Eiko was only following her heart whereas you defied yours.’
‘I don’t want her to be punished.’ Izumi covered her ears and shut her eyes to futilely shut out the presence in her mind.
‘Izumi?’ Junichi and Eiko said in unison. ‘What wrong with her Junichi?’
‘I don’t know. She’s been stressed out since all this started.’ Junichi placed his hand on top of Izumi’s not knowing what else he could do.
‘Come on, let’s lie her down.’
Junichi nodded, standing up but Izumi was suddenly unmovable. ‘Hey, Izumi, get up.’ He grabbed her by the arms and pulled but Izumi now was welded to her seat. ‘I can’t move her.’
‘What do you mean you can’t move her? She weighs like, ninety pounds. Okay, that’s a lie.’ She moved to Izumi’s other side and too attempted to lift her but just as Junichi said, Izumi couldn’t be moved. ‘Wow...’
‘You continue to lie to yourself, Izumi.’ The voice continued. ‘You’re not scared of the darkness, you’re scared that with what is going on around you, your true self will come to life, and people will see the bitch that you are.’
‘You’re wrong.’
‘If I’m wrong then let yourself feel. Go on Izumi! What are you waiting for!?’
‘NO! Why are you here!? Why now!?’
‘Because there is a time and a place for everything, a time when we are tested and who we are as people is revealed.’
‘SHUT UP!’ Izumi’s eyes snapped open, breathing heavily. ‘Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Argh!’
‘Izumi!’ Eiko exclaimed. ‘Calm down!’
Izumi stood abruptly. ‘I can’t stand you! You lied to me! You played me the fool! There you were, a friend and all this time you were better than me! How long!?’
‘H-How long what?’ Eiko looked fearful, quickly looking behind her to see the other Reapers staring at the scene.
‘HOW LONG WERE YOU ONE OF THEM!?’
‘Two years? Maybe three...’
Without warning Izumi had dashed over the table, wrapping her hands around Eiko’s neck. ‘Three years you treated me like an idiot!? Three years you lied to me!? I hate you! I WISH YOU WOULD DROP DEAD!’
‘Good girl, Izumi... Come to me.’
‘What the hell, Izumi!’ Junchi grabbed Izumi by the shoulders, ripping her away from Eiko before she was strangled to death. Izumi collapsed on the floor, leaving Eiko coughing roughly while she massaged her neck. Red marks on her skins were already beginning to darken.
‘N-No! I didn’t mean...’ Unsure of what to do, Izumi simply got up and ran off to another part of the building.